The British Medical Association’s Racism in Medicine Survey highlights the grim fact that at least 75% of ethnic minority doctors experienced racism more than once in the last two years, while 17.4% said they regularly faced racism at work.
Ironically, the ‘Levelling Up’ white paper by the UK government talks about fairness and equality at the same time as the racism report has gone viral. The government’s white paper on Levelling Up the UK says that the UK has a “National Health Service which guarantees care for every citizen”. It further adds that levelling up is a mission to challenge, and change, that unfairness. Levelling up means giving everyone the opportunity to flourish. The paper cites the UK as an “unparalleled success story – a multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-ethnic state with the world’s best broadcaster”.
The 17-page document on Levelling-Up does not have a single mention of the words- “racism”, “diversity”, “discrimination” which are seemingly used daily by ethnic minorities to describe their issues in the country. The Tory government is being critiqued by the regions outside London that are not led by the Conservatives, where many have cited issues and demands that need to be met under “Levelling-Up”.
While the white paper is all about equal opportunities, the racism survey revealed that nearly 20% of doctors said that they either considered leaving (13.8%) or left their job (5.6%) within the past two years due to racial discrimination. Nearly 60% of doctors who experienced racism said that the incident had negatively impacted their wellbeing including causing depression, anxiety, and increased stress levels. 59.7% of Asian respondents saw racism as a barrier to career progression compared to just 4.2% of White British respondents.
In an official statement to Asian Voice, Dr Nikita Kanani, GP and NHS medical director of primary care said, “There is never an excuse for racism, or any form of discrimination and it should not be tolerated by anyone, including our hard-working and dedicated NHS staff. While our latest equality report shows that we have made progress in some areas of the NHS, it is completely unacceptable for anyone to experience racism, discrimination or prejudice at work and NHS organisations should continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to all and any form of discrimination.”
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said, “Portraying the NHS as a success purely because of the numbers of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds employed within the service shows little acknowledgement of the racist incidents that these staff members deal with on a regular basis.
“Decision-makers must get their heads out of the sand and act now. The BMA will be publishing its full report with recommendations this Spring which the Government must act on as a matter of priority.”
NHS as an organisation has a problem with race, full stop
Dr Partha Kar OBE, Diabetes co-lead, NHSE; Director- Equality, Medics, NHSE; Consultant, Portsmouth said, “What the report shows, is a reflection of what the wider reports have shown over the last few years. It basically confirms that we know that the NHS as an organisation, has a problem with race, full stop.
“I've been here for nearly 20-25 years, people will not talk about it, not in the public domain. Over the last few years, you can see many people are coming out and speaking out about it. That's a positive thing because it forces people to look into it.
“Will that put off people for coming to the NHS? I think the answer is probably yes unless we change things. If the NHS is serious about is workforce issues, which need to be grown, we always look for people from other countries to come and help. I'm an example of that.
“So if you want people to come around, it's not just about facing racism, it's also linked to your career progression. If you don't feel you're well treated, and hire opportunities are blocked off, then why would you come and work here? Right? Especially if you're coming from another country, and you're being treated differently, and you see local people being treated differently.”
Dr Kar further elaborated that racism is a fundamental issue, and therefore, there are all these roles where there is a fundamental shift in people being appointed to tackle this. Now you have people in every trust.
“To look forward, some of the things that we are planning is that people need to be held accountable on reports like this. We need a clear mapping of policies to outcomes.
“I believe that we have more leadership positions filled with people coming from abroad, people from different cultures and ethnicity, so these things will be captured more. The idea is that in the next two-three years, this number has to go down has to change.
“What I would also say to all your readers - don't be put off by what you see. Because there is a firm focus on tackling this. I'm not here just to build my CV. I'm here to basically do this job so there are people like me now in different posts who are trying to help. So please bear that in mind as well as depressing and dark as his report sounds, it also has resulted in the triggering of lots of action points to try and tackle this,” Dr Partha Kar told Asian Voice.
Professor Amitava Banerjee, Professor of Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Institute of Health Informatics, University College London spoke to the newsweekly about the racism report.
He said, “For doctors and other health professionals from ethnic minorities, such experiences or hearing of such experiences of other colleagues can put people off from starting or continuing with a career in the NHS.”
“The BMA’s Racism in Medicine survey published last week adds strong supporting evidence to show the scale of the problem among doctors from ethnic minorities. Improvement and a move in the right direction will make changes at several levels and joined-up solutions across the health sector.”
However, Banerjee added that he has been “fortunate”. “I have faced very few incidents of racism in my training and in my career. However, I have seen colleagues trained in the UK and abroad from ethnic minorities face racism in different ways. In the worst case, this has led to the unfortunate step of moving out of healthcare or from the UK. Overall, the situation is improving but not quickly enough. In order to do the best for our patients, health professionals need to be able to practice without fear of discrimination,” the professor told us.
Retention adversely impacted
Talking about the impact of racism on doctors, Dr Ananta Dave, President British Indian Psychiatric Association and Executive Medical Director of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said the long term impact includes burnout, mental illness, impact on physical health, leaving jobs, chronic absence and long term sick leave, apathy, alienation.
“It will adversely impact retention as 40% of doctors are from ethnic minority backgrounds. I think doctors will keep coming to the NHS to further their careers but retention will become an issue, and there will be increased costs to the NHS through sickness, locum costs, reputational costs etc.” Dr Dave told the newsweekly.
She further said that racism does have a significant impact as there’s a fear of speaking out. According to Dr Dave, each such report does make it harder for the Government and NHS Trusts to ignore the issue.
“But institutional racism is deeply entrenched and it’s not till White allies with privilege understand the need to set things right that the momentum will be created.
“I know of many colleagues who have left the NHS or gone back to countries of origin after racist discrimination. I have experienced racism too at several points in my career - have spoken out publicly including in a Channel 4 documentary. I have remained committed to the NHS though,” she added.
Dr Arjun K Ghosh, Director, Foundation Programme, St Bartholomew's Hospital and Consultant Cardiologist Barts Heart Centre told us, “I think it (racism) can have a big impact with a number of doctors leaving the NHS to go to other countries because of this. It can also dissuade people from wanting a career in the NHS. Studies have shown senior management is not diverse enough. Work needs to be done to improve this and championing this change can be very positive. Clearly, previous papers have not been enough as we wouldn’t have these current findings in that case. It needs a concerted effort to change and more at a societal level also and not just in the NHS. I think this has probably happened to most minority-ethnic doctors to a greater or lesser. What is more important is not to accept it and help drive the change to improve matters.
Bradford has the greatest potential for ‘Levelling-Up’
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, told Asian Voice, “Bradford is the UK’s number one levelling up opportunity. We are a young, entrepreneurial and globally connected district, ripe with potential for growth. We are ready to work with the government to unlock the kind of transformative change that the communities across our district deserve. To achieve that transformation, it will require a step-change in national investment in Bradford. Whilst the government’s rhetoric on levelling up has been good, now is the time to deliver.
“So we will be seeking more detail from the government about what the Levelling Up White Paper means in practice on the ground, what new investment it will bring and what real, positive choices will be made to benefit our communities in the Bradford district.
“Locally we are getting on with the job and 2022 promises to be an exciting year as we progress the City of Culture bid and our ambitious regeneration schemes, with the new city centre market, our investment plans for Keighley and Shipley and the rejuvenation of the Odeon building into Bradford Live. We are also investing significantly in our successful jobs and skills programmes and we have the right plans in place for 21st-century transport and infrastructure that simply require government support.
“We are seeking more clarity from the government on the process for becoming a Levelling Up area, which obviously we should be first in the queue to secure. We have the plans, the people and the sites which can bring real benefits for our people and businesses. Independent research has shown Bradford has the greatest potential of the 34 largest cities outside London for levelling up. So for the country to truly level up, it depends on Bradford levelling up. We will hold the government to account to work with us and deliver on our ambitions for the Bradford district.”
“Ministers must reassess rail plans for the North of England” - Northern Mayors
Mayors from across the North of England: Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Jamie Driscoll, North of Tyne Mayor and Dan Jarvis, Mayor of South Yorkshire have called on Ministers to reassess their rail plans for the North of England after the Government admitted it has failed to carry out a levelling up assessment of the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), its flagship levelling up policy.
The Mayors have written to the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Levelling Up Secretary and Transport Secretary challenging the Government to open a new assessment process with Transport for the North (TfN). This process would openly assess both the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan and the rail plan put forward by Northern Leaders to see which would achieve the greater impact in Ministers’ central mission - levelling up the country.
In the letter, the Mayors wrote: “We find it strange to say the very least that the IRP, the Government’s flagship levelling up policy, has not been fully assessed for its levelling up impact. Surely the Government would want to ensure that any major investment of public money achieved the greatest impact on its central mission?
“For this reason, we do not believe that the current IRP should be the final word on rail infrastructure for the North. But, in the spirit of making progress, we wish to put a positive proposal to the Government.
“We know that Crossrail will soon open in London. We do not for one moment begrudge our Capital city this new east-west line and the huge economic benefits it will bring. We simply ask for the same for the North of England.”
In an interview with a radio station, Mayor Andy Burnham further explained, "You can't make big promises to the North and back away and not expect disaffection with politicians."
